Task 5... The Gaze

‘according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome - men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’ (Berger 1972, 45, 47)

Discuss this quote with reference to one work of art and one work from the contemporary media.




The quote that is provided above by Berger is often misquoted, misinterpreted and misunderstood. The common misunderstanding is that women are being vain; however, what he is describing is the proliferation of women. 
Women cannot get away from the idea of being looked at, and there is almost a built in sense that they are always the subject of a males gaze.

In Hans Memling's 'Vanity' (1485) we are presented with naked female who is somewhat criticised by the title. It makes it seem as though it is the woman who is putting on the display, when in fact it is the painter and his portrayal of the woman who creates this connotation. The mirror that the woman is holding in the image is used as a device to make her appear vain. By appearing 'lost in thought' and distracted by her own beauty, the figure seems to be unaware of any other presence, thus allowing herself to be fully on display to the viewer.
In contrast to this is Manet's 'Olympia' (1863). The woman in this painting stares back at the viewer, partially covering herself, this suggests a challenging nature towards the male gaze.

A contemporary example of the male gaze in the media could be the Wonderbra campaigns of 1994, where once again we can see how "women watch themselves being looked at". The adverts feature Eva Herzigova, her image combined with the message being created through the advertisement, such as 'Hello Boys' communicates a sexual invitation, as well as the light and humorous nature created by the image. By looking down at her body and the effects of the Wonderbra the advertisement again creates a portrayal of vanity and sexual confidence towards the audience. By diverting her eyes down towards herself, it allows the viewer to once again look at the female subject without having their gaze challenged. Other slogans such as 'I can't cook, who cares?' create almost a derogatory idea similar to Memling's 'Vanity'; that women are vain in their own appearance and sexuality, when in fact, it is how they are being portrayed by the advertiser or painter.

Task 4... Hyperreality

Write a short analysis (300 words approx) of an aspect of our culture that is in some way Hyperreal. Hyperreality is an awkward and slippery concept. Wikipedia defines it as follows-


Hyperreality is used in semiotics and postmodern philosophy to describe a hypothetical inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced post-modern societies. Hyperreality is a way of characterizing what our consciousness defines as "real" in a world where a multitude of media can radically shape and filter an original event or experience. 

One example of hyperreality in our culture is the zoo. You go to the zoo to view animals in what appears to be their natural habitat, but in actual fact it is not a faithful representation of their natural life.
Baudrillard speaks of the un-reality masking the reality. The zoo is a good example of this, the truth is disguised by a false representation of reality, distorting our understanding of it. The zoo also brings all different parts of the world together, merging different habitats of these animals into one space, this would never happen in reality, making the zoo hyperreal.
Where hyperreality is demonstrated reality is replaced by simulacrum. Simulacra is a copy of something that is there to stand in for or replace what is real. Simulacra makes it difficult to differentiate from the copy and the original. Most people won't ever get the chance in their lives to experience what these animals' lives are actually like in the wild, so the zoos copy of this becomes a reality to them, making the zoo itself a simulacrum. 
'It is the generation by models of a real without origins or reality: a hyperreal' (Baudrillard), This quote from Baudrillard can be seen to describe the zoo. Everything that is presented to the public is a representation or a model of what is real, except it is made more accessible and more practical for the public to view. It is then that the boundaries between the real and the hyperreal become blurred. When the copy becomes more known and recognised than the original, people start to believe the copy to be the reality and it becomes hyperreal. 

Andy Broadey- The Production and Critique of institutions

To examine the historical development of practices of institutional critique in relation to the corresponding development of the modern art gallery.

-To demonstrate the importance of the art museum to the rise of the bourgeois public sphere in the 19th century.
-To analyses Peter Burger's theorisation of the twin development of aestheticist (formalist) art practice, and critical avant-gardism in the first three decades of the 20th century.
-To consider the postwar critique of the convention of the white cube through attention to Brian O'Doherty's Inside the White Cube, and Michael Asher's 1974 Claire Copley Gallery installation.

Deleuze and Guattari and Creativity

To examine how Deleuze and Guattari draw emphasis to the constructed and contingent nature of social reality.

• To contrst their model of creatove, 'rhizomatic' thought with traditional 'tree-like' models of thought based in sequential argumentation;
• To examine Deleuze an Guattari's interpretations of precesses of social change and development;
• To consider how they propose individual people might transform themselves;
• To contextualise these theories of change and development in relation to the concepts 'the virtual' and 'the actual'.

A philosopher and a psychiatrist. Theories of music, geography and sociology. 

Student an worker protests, Paris. The role of the activist- A thousand plateaus (book)

Rethinking social change- change can be on-going. People felt society was going to change.

Tree. Revolt against traditional modes of thought- tree like structure. The trunk being the central thesis and the branches being all individual after thoughts.

Alternative structure of thought- play and creativity. Rhizomatic thought. The virtual and the actual. The chapters don't build on one another and come together- you should dip into one chapter, then another- building a thought.

Rhizo grows underground and pushes up shoots.

Jean Baudrillard and Hyperreality

Plato's allegory of the cave- metaphor for society.

Plato (classical Greek philosopher)

Prisoners- bottom of the cave. Children born into to same life. The cave is really dark, only shadows can be seen that are cast by sunlight seeping through and fire that keeps the cave warm. Prisoners take the shadows (are cast by the cave masters, accidentally or on purpose) to be the real world, that is what the real world is like because they don't know any different.

This reflects the media. Theres the real world, and the image world- what we take as reality.

How commodity culture and the mechanisms that surround it and capitalism create alternative realities, which make reality impossible to access. They disguise the true meaning of the world and distort our understanding of it.

Coca Cola, 1930s campaign. -turned father christmas into red and white, and western. Coca Colas copy of one of the stories of santa claus has become reality. Their is such a long line of copies and repetitions that it is hard to find the original. Baudrillard tries to get back to the origin or the real of the copy.

Study of soft drinks- Samuel McClure and Read Montague.

The unreal having an effect on the real- the image world changing the real world, even tastes and smells.
Emeerged during post-structuralism. Alongside Gilles Deleuze Roland Barthes, and more writers...

Guy Debord- theory of the spectacle. Similar to theory of hyperreality.
A society that lives around a spectacular image of life rather than a real image of life.

Karl Marx argued that commodity has a use value and an exchange value. Baudrillard argued that commodity has a use value and an exchange value, but also between the two has a sign value.

Sign value- all the various things that something connotes. How commodities make us look.

Increasingly in consumerist society advertisers try and ad sign value to objects. Sign value isn't real. A society that is more reliant on the image of things rather than the reality of things.

Simulacra and simulation (1981)

Simulacra- a copy of something that is meant to stand in or replace something. Coca cola stands in for the father christmas myth, replaces it. The simulacra makes it difficult to differentiate from the copy and the original.

When simulacra is copied to simulacra, to simulacra it is hyperreal. The copy is not produced from something real anymore. Copies are copied from copies. Reality is produced from simulacra.

Walt Disney, when doing the drawings for sleeping beauty's castle (logo) from a castle in Prague. I real place, made drawings of this (simulacra). In Disneyland, an actual built version (hyperreal). People visit the castle because it was the inspiration for Disney. The copy is influencing the real world, something that is thousands of years old is visited due to a copy that is much younger.

German christmas markets in England. Light hearted version of Frankfurt, a bit sillier, cliches- a simulacra of the original. They get more popular and spread, copies are made. Birmingham market is three times the size of the one in Frankfurt. The original is lost, turns into an English Christmas tradition. We think we know what a German market is like, but in fact the reality is lost. It is impossible to access the origin and reality of things.

New York city. Is the Manhattan skyline only romantic because we see that it is in films? The feeling of romance is hyperreality. All films are simulacra- copies of what is real.

Ribena. Artificial flavour that we have excepted as blackcurrant when in fact it tastes nothing like it.

We'd rather stare at the wall of Plato's cave rather than face reality. It's depressing.

The Gaze


'Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at' (Berger 1972)

Our society is one giant panopticon around women. Women are there for aesthetic value and men cause change in the world.

Hans Memling- 'Vanity' (1485)

Our gaze is never challenged, so we are allowed to look without anyone ever knowing that you are looking.
When the gaze is not returned it allows the person to be objectified.
All art at this time was made by men. Men also only bought art. Art and visual culture is and always has been dominated by men.

The gaze is about power- a male fantasy of domination over women. A reminder to men that they should be dominating. A fiction, a fantasy- not fact.

Alexandre Cabanel 'Birth of Venus' 1863

Manet 'Olympia' 1863

Birth of Venus doesnt return the gaze, but in a flirty way. Olympia returns the gaze, but in a challenging way. In a dominant position, more guarded body language.
Olympia is reality, she is a prostitute. Birth of Venus is considered art. Being forced to confront that the Birth of Venus image of a woman doesn't exist, you have to pay for it and you will always be challenged. Being confronted with the reality of sexual relationships.

Pornography is not just about sex, its about male dominance. Women are always submissive. The viewer being in control.

Marxist analysis- Men run society and superstructural forms will reflect that and legitimise it.

These images allow more images to be created- they lead to things like wonderbra, women in modern advertising.

Society is a giant panopticon- constant reminders that you have to dress, act, look a certain way- the gaze of an entire culture onto you as an individual woman.

Essay Proposal

How are race and identity constructed and perceived in Benetton advertisements?

• In this essay I am going to address how race and identity are communicated in the media, using Benetton advertisements in particular as a case study
• I will address particular advertisements made by Benetton and talk about how the viewer receives the image and what Benetton meant to achieve by displaying ethic diversity in their ads.
• I am going to address how using race as a focal point in their advertisements arises the issues of commodity culture, using race to sell mundane products.
• I am going to discuss different opinions on the add, whether they should be seen in a positive or negative light.
• I will briefly touch on race and ethnicity in the media in a broader sense and how it reflects on Benetton.
• I am going to research into various different theorists that discuss race and ethnicity used in the media and compare their views to come to a conclusion.

Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. (2001) Practices of Looking, New York, Oxford University press

Osborne, P. and Sandford, S. (eds) (2002) Philosophies of Race and Ethnicity,London, Continuum

Donald, J. and Rattansi, A. (eds) (2005) ‘Race’, Culture & Difference, London, Sage publications

Salvemini, L. (2002) United Colours, The Benetton Campaigns, London, Scriptum Editions

Alcoff, L. (1996)’Philosophy and Racial Identity’ in Osborne, P. and Sandford, S. (eds)Philosophies of Race and Ethnicity, London, Continuum